Good to go

Cathy King, Raylene Rocque and Lori Armistead pose at the Jasper Place curling club on Tuesday. Yesterday the team was in the air on its way to the women's nationals in London, Ont. (Edmonton Sun/Walter Tychnowicz)

Yesterday, King and her foursome left for London, Ont., where the 25th Scott Tournament of Hearts gets underway Saturday.

They're travelling the skies hoping the stars will once again align for their skip.

This is the third time King is travelling to a national championship after winning her second straight Alberta title.

In her two previous chances, King went on to win the national title - the Canadian junior in 1977 and the Scotts in 1998.

AN OMEN?

The 1998 worlds was held in Kamloops, this year's worlds is being held in Grande Prairie. Team Canada on Canadian soil. An omen?

Outside the mystical, King's team has been fire on ice in its own right.

After going 15-0 to win Alberta, the team left the next day for Kamloops, where it built up a 6-1 record to win this year's Canada Cup and about 35 grand. Its only loss was an extra-end setback to B.C. Scotts rep Kelly Scott.

Do the math - 21 wins in its last 22 starts.

"Last year, we went through more of what to expect," said King of getting her supporting cast prepared for the distractions at their first Scotts. "Marcel (Rocque) and I sat the girls down and had a long chat about what they could expect. This year, we didn't need to, because they already know."

The team shot 90% in its Alberta win over Renee Sonnenberg and carried on in Kamloops. That's the last bonspiel the team played. The big question is whether the foursome can remain just as sharp as it was when it won the Canada Cup of Feb. 5.

"That's the thing - how do you keep it up? You tell me," said King. "It's hard. It's not too often you see the big teams go week after week winning. There's too many good teams out there."

The field at this year's Scotts is pretty comparable to last year's, when King's team lost its first tiebreaker game.

"Since we didn't make the playoffs last year, that has to be our first expectation - to make the layoffs," said King. "Considering what we've gone through in the last little while, I'm hoping we've put it all together.

"We're on a good roll right now. Everybody on the team's been playing well. We're right into it."

ROCQUE AND ROLL

Second Raylene Rocque has kept the Rocque name in the national spotlight for the sixth straight year. Rocque's husband Marcel is headed off to St. John's, Nfld. with the Randy Ferbey team for the start of today's 2006 Masters of Curling, the third event on this year's Grand Slam calendar.

"I think he's going to come out for the final weekend," said Rocque about Marcel's turn to look after the couple's children.

"It's not so much deer-in-the-headlights as a first-year team.We feel better as a team. Now, we're used to the media, even at the Canada Cup.

"We've matured. We've gelled better. We're going to try to stay loose and have some fun and let things take care of themselves."